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Design fun

January 25, 15 16:29

The fruit of last year's watch design workshop was so impressive that I had to sign up this year. Considering we are most likely to see the Overseas Gen III (with in-house automatic) next year, it was perhaps a last chance to share our visions of the Gen II.

My partner in mischief was Simon and it was clear that he, along with the entire design team, really enjoy their creative freedom. As there was some curiosity over my DLC Gen I OS Chronometer at dinner, I decided to extend the theme into Sea Shadow II:

Design head Vincent Kauffmann wandered over several times and his final comment on this version was succinct: "brutal". Actually, he favored my first attempt, with the bezel in polished steel:

Also tried the pushers in plain steel but that didn't seem to work. Simon noted that over the past several workshops, many participants put forward all-black versions of the Overseas, so clearly the idea has some appeal with Vacheronistas. Here's hoping...

While we were chatting about the new Harmony, it was inevitable that the chosen name would come up. Turns out there was several attempts at a satisfactory name. Indeed, another was chosen but failed to clear the legal department as it was already taken. To Vincent, the "harmony" of this watch came from its significance as their first entirely collaborative team design! Here was their Wall of Inspiration:

New case shapes were produced by the 3-D printer overnight:

OTOH, prototype dials and hands could take a few weeks so CAD was relied upon more:

It was great fun to peek into the workings of VC's design studio and many thanks to our mentors .

I did the same workshop last year, and I believe that Simon was my oh-so-patient partner as well. Yours turned out much better than mine, that is for sure. I am going to stick to my day job.

I loved looking at their Inspiration Wall. It felt like spying into their private creative lives. Vincent's team is really wonderful, so talented and also very charming in how they let us play in their studio, absolutely one of my favorite moments in the factory visit.

Those are some cool knick-knacks from the 3D printer. Did Vincent let you take those home?

Brtual is a fitting description - in a great way. I would love to see others' designs as well. Also, I would REALLY like to get my hands on some of the 3D printed "rejects". Wonder what else they have been toying with. You didn't happen to see any attempts at the OS III, did you? It's OK, you can tell us. We promise not to blab it all over the Internet! Alex doesn't mind, right Alex.